Safe
by OtterAndTerrier
Summary: [COMPLETE] While the rest of the palace sleeps, Bail and Leia bond about their nightmares.


**A/N:** Written for **alderaanallday** , who requested "a fic with Leia waking up from a nightmare and bonding with her dad in the middle of the night since he had one about Leia being shot down like that boy for being force sensitive".

* * *

 **Safe**

Bail turned around just in time to see his daughter running to him, arms outstretched. Smiling, he bent his knees and opened his arms as well, ready to catch her. As if in slow motion, he realized something was wrong. Leia's expression wasn't playful or welcoming: her big bright eyes showed terror. She was running with the urgency of someone being chased.

 _They found her!_

Bail started to run forward, but the distance was too great, his legs not light enough. Stormtroopers appeared behind Leia from a building he was all too familiar with. It showed up all the time in his dreams, taunting him, making him see the face of the boy he couldn't save. Except now, it was his daughter wearing the Padawan attire.

 _Not this time!_ he thought desperately, before a blaster shot tore the air and Leia slumped forward with a silent cry.

Gasping, Bail sat up in bed, pressing a hand to his fast-beating chest. A nightmare, he realized, looking around the dark bedroom. Breha was fast asleep next to him, unperturbed.

He swung his feet over the side of the bed, too agitated to go back to sleep.

The palace was dark and silent save for the discreet beeps and lights from the droids that replaced the day guards. Bail set off without knowing where he was going—the kitchen, he'd assumed, for a glass of water. It was soon obvious that his feet were taking him in a different direction. Foolish as it was, he needed to see Leia, safe and sound in her bed…

Instead, he found it empty.

Bail tried to quell his fears—nobody could have sneaked into the heavily guarded palace to kidnap her, no more than she could have jumped out of her window. She had to be up and somewhere inside. It still worried him that his eight-year-old daughter was wandering about in the middle of the night: something must have troubled her, maybe a nightmare, too. Breha and he always used to stay up with her when that happened, eventually falling asleep while they sat on the floor at each side of her bed, their heads resting next to her little legs. Maybe Leia had decided she was too old for that now.

She certainly wasn't old enough to deal with insomnia all on her own, either. Bail checked the library first, then the "inside-outside room", as Leia called it, but they were both empty. He decided to go to the kitchen in the end, in case Leia had had the same idea as him.

She was standing on a chair pushed against one of the long countertops, her frilly little nightgown dancing around her ankles. Bail made sure to shuffle his feet a little so as not to startle her before he spoke up.

'What are you doing, Leia?'

'I'm just looking for a glass, Daddy,' she answered, lowering her voice.

'You want some water?'

Leia nodded.

'How about some warm milk instead?'

A more enthusiastic nod.

Bail picked her up and set her on the countertop before looking for the milk and a mug. When it was warm enough, he added a bit of sugar and cocoa powder and handed it to his daughter.

Leia took a sip and her eyes lit up, a smile curling along the rim of the mug.

'Why were you up, sweetheart?' Bail asked gently, brushing a lock of wavy hair off her cheek.

'I had a bad dream.'

'I had a bad dream, too.' Bail leaned against the countertop next to her and sighed. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

Leia stared at the inside of her mug for a second and shivered a little. Bail wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her close.

'It's okay, Lelila, you don't have to if you don't want. It was only a nightmare.'

'It was about a… it was about the Dar Veide,' she said in a small voice. 'The man all in black with his red light sword. I heard you talking about him before.'

Bail's insides froze.

' _Darth Vader_. Why were you—?'

'Sorry Daddy, I didn't mean to,' Leia said quickly, looking at him with those soulful eyes he could never say no to. _I better learn to. Soon she's going to spin me around her little finger._

'It's very rude to eavesdrop, sweetheart. Darth Vader can't hurt you, do you understand? You're safe here. You're safe,' he repeated, this time for himself to hear.

Leia nodded and leaned into his chest.

'Do you want to talk about your nightmare, Daddy?'

'It was about bad men, too. You don't need to worry about it.'

'You don't have to worry either, they can't hurt you,' Leia said, repeating his words and giving him a reassuring smile.

Bail smiled back and kissed his daughter's head. She was right: in this moment, he had nothing to worry about.


End file.
